Continuous-Time Model Identification of the Subglottal System.

Mathematical models that accurately simulate the physiological systems of the human body serve as cornerstone instruments for advancing medical science and facilitating innovative clinical interventions. One application is the modeling of the subglottal tract and neck skin properties for its use in the ambulatory assessment of vocal function, by enabling non-invasive monitoring of glottal airflow via a neck surface accelerometer. For the technique to be effective, the development of an accurate building block model for the subglottal tract is required. Such a model is expected to utilize glottal volume velocity as the input parameter and yield neck skin acceleration as the corresponding output. In contrast to preceding efforts that employed frequency-domain methods, the present paper leverages system identification techniques to derive a parsimonious continuous-time model of the subglottal tract using time-domain data samples. Additionally, an examination of the model order is conducted through the application of various information criteria. Once a low-order model is successfully fitted, an inverse filter based on a Kalman smoother is utilized for the estimation of glottal volume velocity and related aerodynamic metrics, thereby constituting the most efficient execution of these estimates thus far. Anticipated reductions in computational time and complexity due to the lower order of the subglottal model hold particular relevance for real-time monitoring. Simultaneously, the methodology proves efficient in generating a spectrum of aerodynamic features essential for ambulatory vocal function assessment.

Glottal Airflow Estimation using Neck Surface Acceleration and Low-Order Kalman Smoothing.

The use of non-invasive skin accelerometers placed over the extrathoracic trachea has been proposed in the literature for measuring vocal function. Glottal airflow is estimated using inverse filtering or Bayesian techniques based on a subglottal impedance-based model when utilizing these sensors. However, deviations in glottal airflow estimates can arise due to sensor positioning and model mismatch, and addressing them requires a significant computational load. In this paper, we utilize system identification techniques to obtain a low order state-space representation of the subglottal impedance-based model. We then employ the resulting low order model in a Kalman smoother to estimate the glottal airflow. Our proposed approach reduces the model order by 94% and requires only 1.5% of the computing time compared to previous Bayesian methods in the literature, while achieving slightly better accuracy when correcting for glottal airflow deviations. Additionally, our Kalman smoother approach provides a measure of uncertainty in the airflow estimate, which is valuable when measurements are taken under different conditions. With its comparable accuracy in signal estimation and reduced computational load, the proposed approach has the potential for real-time estimation of glottal airflow and its associated uncertainty in wearable voice ambulatory monitors using neck-surface acceleration.

Kalman Filter Implementation of Subglottal Impedance-Based Inverse Filtering to Estimate Glottal Airflow during Phonation.

Subglottal Impedance-Based Inverse Filtering (IBIF) allows for the continuous, non-invasive estimation of glottal airflow from a surface accelerometer placed over the anterior neck skin below the larynx. It has been shown to be advantageous for the ambulatory monitoring of vocal function, specifically in the use of high-order statistics to understand long-term vocal behavior. However, during long-term ambulatory recordings over several days, conditions may drift from the laboratory environment where the IBIF parameters were initially estimated due to sensor positioning, skin attachment, or temperature, among other factors. Observation uncertainties and model mismatch may result in significant deviations in the glottal airflow estimates; unfortunately, they are very difficult to quantify in ambulatory conditions due to a lack of a reference signal. To address this issue, we propose a Kalman filter implementation of the IBIF filter, which allows for both estimating the model uncertainty and adapting the airflow estimates to correct for signal deviations. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) results from laboratory experiments using the Rainbow Passage indicate an improvement using the modified Kalman filter on amplitude-based measures for phonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction (PVH) subjects compared to the standard IBIF; the latter showing a statistically difference (p-value = 0.02, F = 4.1) with respect to a reference glottal volume velocity signal estimated from a single notch filter used here as ground-truth in this work. In contrast, maximum flow declination rates from subjects with vocal phonotrauma exhibit a small but statistically difference between the ground-truth signal and the modified Kalman filter when using one-way ANOVA (p-value = 0.04, F = 3.3). Other measures did not have significant differences with either the modified Kalman filter or IBIF compared to ground-truth, with the exception of H1-H2, whose performance deteriorates for both methods. Overall, both methods (modified Kalman filter and IBIF) show similar glottal airflow measures, with the advantage of the modified Kalman filter to improve amplitude estimation. Moreover, Kalman filter deviations from the IBIF output airflow might suggest a better representation of some fine details in the ground-truth glottal airflow signal. Other applications may take more advantage from the adaptation offered by the modified Kalman filter implementation.

Energy-based fluid-structure model of the vocal folds.

Lumped elements models of vocal folds are relevant research tools that can enhance the understanding of the pathophysiology of many voice disorders. In this paper, we use the port-Hamiltonian framework to obtain an energy-based model for the fluid-structure interactions between the vocal folds and the airflow in the glottis. The vocal fold behavior is represented by a three-mass model and the airflow is described as a fluid with irrotational flow. The proposed approach allows to go beyond the usual quasi-steady one-dimensional flow assumption in lumped mass models. The simulation results show that the proposed energy-based model successfully reproduces the oscillations of the vocal folds, including the collision phenomena, and it is useful to analyze the energy exchange between the airflow and the vocal folds.